Next Gen Broadband 
Virgin Media has signed a record-breaking deal with the Universal Music Group which will see it become the first ISP in the UK — and the world — to offer free downloads of music that is readily available and unrestricted by any DRM software.
The service will be available to subscribe to alongside Virgin Media’s broadband packages. It is thought that there will be various packages available, such as a basic service which, according to a source quoted in The Register, allows for “a couple of albums per month,” to be downloaded, alongside an unlimited service, which would give you full access to the Universal catalogue.
Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett said, “In terms of both convenience and value, our new music service will be superior to anything that’s available online today and provides a fair deal for both consumers and artists. There is no better example of Virgin Media’s commitment to harnessing digital technology to give customers what they want, when they want and how they want.”
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Posted by Tom on June 15th 2009 in Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, Virgin Media
News has just reached us that BT Broadband will be offering free upgrades to faster speeds when it’s 21st Century ADSL2+ network comes online this summer. 10 million UK homes are due to receive the free speed boost, which will provide ‘up to’ speeds of 20Mbps, more than double the top speed currently available on any of BT’s packages.
Further rollout of the service will continue into the new year. 10 million homes accounts for roughly 40 per cent of BT’s network, and it is expected that a further 55 per cent will be covered by March 2010.
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Posted by Tom on June 4th 2009 in BT Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, Virgin Media
Be Broadband is giving away £24 worth of Amazon gift vouchers to customers who sign up for any of its services between now and the end of June. The offer applies to new customers who sign up for a 12 month contract for Be Value, Be Unlimited or Be Pro. To qualify for the vouchers, all you have to do during the sign up process is enter the code ’24Offer’.
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Posted by Tom on June 2nd 2009 in Be Broadband, Competitions, Next Gen Broadband
What is a hot spot not? A recent study by leading independent broadband research website SamKnows reveals that millions of UK consumers are living in broadband ‘not spots’ – areas where download speeds don’t even come close to 2Mbps.
What’s surprising about the report is that many of these not spots can be found in built up suburban areas as well as in remote rural regions. “We had assumed that these not spots were in remote parts of the countryside. That may be where the most vocal campaigners are but there is a high incidence of them in commuter belts,” says SamKnows co-founder Alex Salter.
The general rule of thumb with broadband (specifically ADSL, the type delivered over phone lines) is that the further away you are from a telephone exchange, the slower the speed gets. Naturally its fair to assume that if you live in a built up area, then you’re almost guaranteed a semi-decent level of service – this recent survey however has proven that this isn’t always the case.
What the survey reveals is that any residence more than 4 kilometers from an exchange sees the speed dropping below 2Mbps.
This is the case in Basingstoke in Hampshire; a built up commuter belt with direct rail access to London, but one where 50 per cent of the population cannot get speeds greater than 2Mbps because their homes are some 6km away from the nearest exchange.
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Posted by Tom on May 27th 2009 in Next Gen Broadband
After both BT and Virgin Media have been busy making their next-gen plans public over the last few weeks, the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), an independent Government body, has announced that it is spending £1 million on developing new broadband technology.
The research projects could yield technology capable of delivering speeds from 1 and 10 Gbps, or Gigabits per second, and will hopefully ensure that the UK won’t lag behind other countries in the future when it comes to broadband.
“The challenge is to identify ways to address the technical issues facing the introduction of Ultra-Fast Broadband within the next decade and to build European collaborations to exploit the technology,” said Mike Biddle, a spokesman for the TSB.
There are 13 projects currently being undertaken, all of which are concerned with different aspects of how the future of Broadband Britain might take shape. One will look at the possible technology used for Ultra Fast Broadband, and another at how best to connect homes to fibre networks.
It is thought that the final result of these projects will be an extensive roadmap which will lay out the best way for the Government to prepare for the future of broadband in the UK.
[Source: Google Earth]
Posted by Tom on May 19th 2009 in BT Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, Virgin Media
Virgin Media is planning to add a further half a million UK homes to its existing network, with some 50,000 homes and businesses to be added this year alone. The Virgin Media network currently covers some 12.5 million premises, which accounts for roughly 50 per cent of the UK.
Virgin Media will be initially focussing on places where ducting and infrastructure has already been set up in order to minimize costs and delays, close to or within areas already fully or partially covered by the cable network.
A Virgin Media spokesperson, quoted in DigitalSpy earlier this week, said that the move will “improve our consumer offer and lay the foundation for future growth.”
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Posted by Tom on May 19th 2009 in BT Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, Virgin Media
It looks as though BT is set to double the pace of its next-gen fibre optic broadband rollout, bringing up to 100Mbps broadband within reach of more than a million premises as early as next year.
In a statement following publication of the broadband market leader’s financial report for the last three months of 2008, CEO Ian Livingstone said:
“We will examine doubling the pace of the rollout of super fast broadband next year within existing capital expenditure plans, bringing fibre based services within the reach of more than a million homes and businesses and securing the jobs of a thousand BT people.”
Perhaps BT were spurred to act fast after it was announced that Virgin Media has begun trialling a 200Mbps service, and has mentioned plans to roll out a 150Mbps service to customers in 2010.
“If BT were to meet the time frame they have suggested – of finishing by 2012 – I would see us as having much, much faster upstream speed, running at a minimum of 100Mbps downstream and possibly more,” said Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett in March.
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Posted by Tom on May 19th 2009 in BT Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, Virgin Media
Virgin Media has begun a pilot of a 200Mbps broadband service in its usual trial location of Ashford in Kent. The trials will see 100 staff and customers connected to the new super-fast service for six months.
Virgin Media are claiming that this test ranks as the “fastest implementation of DOCSIS 3 technology in the world, running faster than services offered in Japan and the US, which currently reach 160Mb and 101Mb respectively.”
“With the only true next generation network in the UK, we’re at the forefront of innovation and understanding when it comes to ultrafast broadband services,” said Virgin Media chief executive Neil Berkett.
The 200Mb pilot will give us further insight into how true ‘wideband’ services might be used by consumers.”
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Posted by Tom on May 6th 2009 in Next Gen Broadband, Virgin Media
According to some ‘secret plans’ leaked in yesterday’s Guardian, quad play provider Virgin Media are apparently intent on opening up their fibre optic cable network to rival providers. The article details how the fibre provider has “plans to open up its cable network to rival telephone and broadband companies” in around 18 months’ time, loosely following BT’s Openreach template.
This move would see the likes of Sky, O2 and the Carphone Warehouse offer fast cable broadband services where available alongside their more traditional copperwire ADSL services.
BT is already busy setting up a fibre network of its own, which is not due to be complete until 2012. If Virgin Media were to open up their network before then, BT could in theory get its customers signed up to cable on the Virgin network, and then migrate them across to their own lines once the network is up and running.
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Posted by Tom on May 5th 2009 in BT Broadband, Broadband, Carphone Warehouse, Next Gen Broadband, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media
BT has revealed the first areas in the UK to receive its next-gen services. The broadband market leader will deploy its first fibre connections in the suburbs of Muswell Hill in north London and Whitchurch in northern Cardiff this summer.
These regions will form part of a trial before full scale roll out of the £1.5 billion network begins early next year. Average download speeds available are said to be around the 40Mbps mark, with 60Mbps being earmarked as the theoretical ‘up to’ speed.
Steve Robertson, chief executive officer of BT Openreach, said that next-gen broadband is “essential to the future of the UK”.
“The wider industry will now be able to plan ahead as we will be making our services available on a wholesale basis. This approach will benefit customers as there will undoubtedly be fierce competition for their business.”
It was announced last month that BT would also be trialling its next-gen services in rural areas in order to collect a wealth of data. Areas provisionally earmarked for this included the Calder Valley near Halifax and Taffs Well in South Wales, although no further information about deployment in theses areas has been announced.
Posted by Tom on April 15th 2009 in BT Broadband, Mobile Broadband, Next Gen Broadband
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